Melancton

I never charged and I went to every zone to Broadcast mission availability. I had missed out on Fortune Teller for my first couple of heroes (too much time in the Hollows) so I offered team slots on every hero thereafter, since I knew what a pain it was to get it later. (I spent a lot of time in Steel broadcasting that I needed it, while standing next to one of the contacts and asking all the heroes that came up. Pretty pitiful to have to beg, but that was the only way at the time...)

When I had to get the mission after having missed it, I always lavishly tipped the mission holder, which was the polite thing to do, especially if you were a loaded high level hero.

I even had someone grief one of my Fortune Teller missions, even though I had not charged, etc. Pretty sad. Fortunately, I had another guy on the same server that needed it, and I got it for both heroes doing the famous "swap out the mission holder for another hero" gambit.

Man, it WAS tough back in the day!

So, in THAT case, let me say that you were the best artist of the CoH Comic run, and that the group portrait of the Vindicators was simply outstanding.

So get the Powers That Be to resurrect the CoH Comic--- you draw and let Troy Hickman do the writing.

THAT would be something!

PS-If you need help on this, who should we nudge to make it so?

I never could get the baddies to zero endurance when I did that with Build Up+Short Circuit. They always had just a smidge left, and it was typically rather traumatic on my squishy self.

I have noted before that very often a hero has the Build they levelled up with, and the Build they respec into around lvl 50. Playstyles can radically differ Pre- and Post- certain powers. Build Up+Power Sink+Short Circuit floors them, but before Power Sink it just did not work.

If I am going to toss Thunderous Blast, then I save Power Sink (and a Blue) for use on getting Instant Endurance Recharge on any potential survivor(s). Electric Nuking in this manner is my favorite way to Nuke.

Are there any other heroes that can reliably use an End Drain strategy? You mentioned Kin/Elec... how does that work out?

All 3 of my first lvl 50 heroes went to Hami raids, but it quickly became obvious my Grav Controller was the best choice. In fact, he always logged out in Eden atop one of the stone pillars.

First thing was that he got a snappy black tux with sunglasses to wear to raids, even though he is a blue-skinned alien with glowy eyes, because Capes+Auras=Lag. So his Raiding Attire was bemusing.

Second thing was that he had a Pet to target through. In the final phase, everyone with a hold went into the goo and spammed Holds on Hami. But most rigs could not render all the graphics, and frequently, Hami just disappeared from view and you could not see him to target him. So the preferred solution was to target a Pet, who could always see Hami and would attack. Singy was probably the best overall pet to Raid with because of his holds and extreme toughness. In fact, that toughness leads to the

Third thing, which was that during the Hold Phase at the end, I was in the goo, spamming Holds but keeping an eye on Singy's health. If it dropped ANY AT ALL, I immediately hit Fly and ran for the exit. Singy always lived just long enough to take all my aggro and get me close to the exit before I would take a single hit. I thus survived 3 Yellow Dawns!




As you can see from the Black Hole of Purple Names, my rig could not render all of the yellow mitos at the core of the disaster. You can pretty well figure that each Purple Name had a dead hero on the turf. And I see that we had not gotten to the Call For Vanguards and Geas yet when this Yellow Dawn popped.

This Yellow Dawn had had a particularly vocal griefer as I recall, and the broadcast had gotten pretty testy, whereas it was usually pretty funny. (At one of the last Raids, a tank named Yeti had the Lead Taunt duty, and someone hollered out to "Shave the Yeti!" so I responded, "Shave the Yeti, Shave the World!" to much loling. I think this sort of silliness was an endearing aspect that gets fondly remembered. The jocularity, that is, not my particular lame joke. )

The griefing did get old, though. Folks dragging monsters, triggering Rain of Fire on Hami, running a Fire Aura with a Cape on non-fire heroes, etc. And upon occasion, as you see, the griefing worked, and Mr. Vocal was extremely pleased.

As a result of my many, many Hamis, my 4th lvl 50 was totally Hami'd out the moment he hit lvl 47. But then IOs showed up, and I have not been to any of the new Raids.

Ah, well, Them's Was The Days.

Fixed for maximum irony.

This is very true. I was jazzed over the notion that my Electric Blaster could drain enemy Endurance, but running in and triggering Short Circuit drained them a bit, but if they have ANY End left, the baddies use it to dance on your head at close quarters. The End Drain Strategy NEVER worked for me until I could lead off with a properly slotted Power Sink, but I earned a lot of Frequent Flyer Miles going to the Hospital until I figured it out.

-Recharge helps a great deal, even in small quantities. End Drain and
-Recovery are pretty well worthless unless you can drain the baddies to Zero Endurance.

Tex, we ALL cause a wipeout now and again. Sometimes I am hitting Tab to beat the band to get that nearby baddie, and they go down just before I tab, and I end up firing my Nem Staff at the closest baddie in the mob across the room. *cue Baddie Stampede* Sometimes we survive, sometimes it is a wipe.

There are some folks that can wipe you out routinely, and it never improves.

As long as you learned from your mistakes and got better, hey, it's only debt. Or burnt up Patrol XP, I guess.

Hey, horse people need respect, too!

I don't think it has to be a zero-sum situation. They have added some things for the ninja, so that will likely be it for a while. The next boosters will be adding things more to your liking. I think you will see things added for your preferences WITHOUT having to do a moratorium on all Martial Arts themes.

As far as turning your fire/kin into "living flame," there are some flaming auras, when coupled with changing your underlying costume to say, tights with flame colors, would probably look like what you are striving for. It is unfortunate that auras do not unlock until lvl 30 (and you have to run the aura missions for the City Rep at Atlas City Hall), so if you have not hit lvl 30 yet, hang on and you should eventually get your wish. You can buy Halloween salvage and redeem it for an extra costume slot, or run extra costume slot missions for the various tailors at lvl 20, 30 and 40. That way you can have multiple costume "looks" and change between them.

More choices for everyone is fine with me. I think they are working as fast as they can to add more stuff, which is all to the good.

I think that is fair enough, and is the other side of the coin on this issue. You can build your hero any way you would like, but you cannot insist that everyone celebrate your choices or style of play.

A lot will also depend on the player. My first 50 was Ice/FF, and I was EXTREMELY diligent to keep the bubbles up on everyone, even BEFORE I figured out how to bind my numberpad to assist with that. I also took Grant Invisibility and kept that on everyone but the Tank. I also skipped Frostbite, the AoE Immob, in favor of Chilblain, the ST Immob, since Frostbite interfered with Ice Slick, of which I often had TWO running. I also pumped out a Jack Frost as often as the power came up, and eventually got to where I had 3 out for a brief time.

Then came ED.

I also continued to read guides and I discovered the Test Server. I eventually re-re-re-re-respecced into Arctic Air and adjusted my tactics, and never looked back. But I had fun both ways, and I kept busy both ways, even after ED. I still take that guy out for a spin.

If you had a choice between an Ice/FF with AA or without, you would invite the one with it, which is fair enough. You might invite a Granite Tank over an Inv Tank, which likewise boils down to your preference on who to team with. Hopefully, everyone will be enjoying themselves and playing heroes they like to play.

Bill, the thought of dual builds never crossed my mind. That is an excellent point.

I guess I have trouble wrapping my mind around a Storm character that skips most of the Storm powers, but as I said, their fun, so their choice. And if it is one of a dual build combo, it makes even more sense.

And I still like the Smiling Kitteh!

Too many meant that there was rarely enough interested folks to pull it off past the first 4 days or so. And when there WERE enough people, sometimes the banners were so separated that no one on my team got to the first one before it was destroyed, and no badge.

And I also got tired of the baddies fleeing the ring and sniping from range. I had to immobilize them whenever possible to make them stay in place while I debuffed them.

The entire point is to have fun, and if you don't enjoy it, you should not take it. I played my first Ice Controller almost to 50 without it and had a great time.

Any power is really contingent upon enjoyment.

There are some powers that are so great and so defining, my take on it is not so much "YOU MUST TAKE THIS POWER, NOOB!" as it is "So why are you even playing this powerset if you don't want those powers?" I do not fret over someone who is "gimped" if that is how they want to play, but it does baffle me as to why someone would pick a powerset and shun most of the powers. But if they are having fun, then that is the way to go for them.

/em jawdrop

I will spot someone not taking Arctic Air, although now with the purple dots, it is clear it has not gotten the respect it always should have had, but a Stormer who does not take Freezing Rain... the mind just boggles. You MUST take that. *shakes head sadly*

However, as a result of this thread, I dusted off Ye Olde Lvl 50 Ice/Storm for Fun and Games with Banners. The bad news was that there were never very many folks running teams when I was on, but the good news was that I was able to hold down a banner solo and get it to vulnerability. With Tornado and Lightning Storm (although it got nerfed badly) smacking folks down, Freezing Rain and Ice Slick tripping them up, Jack wailing away with his Ice Sword and a Festive Dose of Fire Ball/Blast, the table was set for Arctic Air to confuse/frighten the rest of the baddies. This helped in two ways: not only did they NOT shoot me, they helped take themselves down to get the Banners vulnerable. So I lived and accomplished the mission.

Those purple dots were turning up a LOT, and melee attacks on me were almost nil. I took him out for some Trick or Treat and it was likewise wonderful.

I have an Ice/Rad in his 20s, and I am anxious to see what he can do now that he has Stamina.

I instantly recognized this quote as one that Bugs Bunny said.

EDIT: As it turns out, it comes from 1945's The Unruly Hare, wherein Bugs gives Elmer Fudd a smooch and asks, Is you is or is you ain't my baby?

(I had thought it was while he was in drag as a Tasmanian She-Devil in Bedevilled Rabbit from 1957.)

But I KNEW that the source was Bugs Bunny.

So imagine my disappointment when I googled it just to make sure. Apparently Mr. Bunny was quoting an earlier source...

My first Ice Controller was one of my first heroes, so in addition to all of the aforementioned, I was still learning about aggro, the various sorts of enhancements and the abilities of the various enemy groups I was facing in PUGs.

My conclusion was that AA was leaving me without endurance but attracting a lot of aggro to me. Given what I knew at the time, this was not an unreasonable conclusion. My secondary was FF, and even then, I was finding that going into melee range was extremely dangerous, given that my experiments with that coincided with facing A) the Warriors and B) Nemesis. And not only is Nemesis pretty tough close up, 2 or 3 groups can aggro and snipe you with multiple shots, and it is tough to tell where the shots are coming from. I was getting buried in the incoming barrage next to the tank. So I avoided AA for most of my trip to 50 and was a ranged player, although I respecced into AA in my later 40s and it was great.

My Ice/Storm Controller, however, was AA all the way. IO sets made this an even better power, along with the Festive Procs. By this time, I had a few tricks up my sleeve for each group I encountered, though Nemesis was still a challenge.

I had not heard that AA will now cause purple dots. That will be very useful.

I am always flabbergasted that those guys can still FLY given the 4-5 inches of ice hanging off of them. It does seem to help, though.

But if I had to pay for each of those drones that do get zonked, I would be broke.

How is it that you can find the actual rep numbers on those? I can discern what the general trend was, but not the actual numbers. How are you doing that?

Sort of a violent reaction to your comment on BAB's part, wasn't it?

Served him right that he got bampf'd by Dark_Respite, then.